Love Live! Everlasting Shine (Mari Ohara x Male Reader)

Chapter 13 - Dear Moments

I let out a yawn as I sat out in the grass of the college campus, my mind focused on my crappy results from a recent test, the professor trying to prepare the class for his subject's exams next week. Despite it being midday, I'm still so exhausted from trying to deal with the final steps to get my novel ready for publishing, and I don't know if it's always this arduous, but I've spent so much of my free time on that. How did Mari seriously manage to be the chairwoman of Uranohoshi for a year, act as a part of Aquors, attend school, and have a social life, and not exhaust herself?

"I'm here Y/n."

I looked and gave Mari a smile as she sat down beside me and said "So did you do any better on the test in our mathematics class than I did?"

"I think I did pretty well. I take it you didn't?" Mari said

"Nope, I've been so busy with finishing my novel and getting the publishing done, that I haven't spent any time studying. Needless to say, I barely scraped through to get a passing grade." I said

"I won't be as good as Dia, but we could have a study session for the two of us." Mari suggested

"Yeah, I could go for that." I said. I'd really prefer to not fail any of the classes in my first semester of college after all, but still, I have no clue how much work we'd actually get done trying to study together. Especially since she can be quite the teaser to go along with those jokes of her's.

"Alright! Then just leave it to me to figure out the details for that, but for now you seriously need to rest. I can tell just how sleep deprived you are from those bags under your eyes." Mari said

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." I said. I can take a break once everything is taken care of. I have some things I can work on to pass the time while talking to Mari until our next class starts.

"Just a short nap, alright? You can use my lap as a pillow too." Mari offered

Truth be told, I am really tired, and while I don't want to burn too much time, I can spend making sure my novel won't be a failure, I don't want to worry Mari too much.

I let out a sigh and said "Alright, I guess I could go for a short nap, but it's not because of you offering a lap pillow."

"Of course not." Mari said, seemingly not completely convinced as she adjusted her position.

"Still, all this makes me wonder how you did so much last year at Uranohoshi." I said before I rested my head on her lap

"There was a lot of coffee and late nights to be honest." Mari said, and as I was about to ask about that, she then said "It's a joke, well for the most part. Truth be told I did have a lot on my plate, but that didn't mean I didn't take care of myself. And then with you and my friends in Aqours beside me, I couldn't help but want to work hard for the people I love."

There she is, driven so incredibly and surpassing expectations because of her passion and love. She really is incredible, and I guess I could take a page out of her book, but I don't know if for somebody like me, if passion is enough to get by.

—-----------------------------------

A couple days later, I sat down at the table in Mari's penthouse, pulling out the textbooks and notebooks so we could spend the evening studying together while Mari brewed us some coffee after dinner together.

There are only a couple days left before the exams for our first semester, and with the last parts I can help with when it comes to publishing my novel finished, it's just a waiting game now, I guess. I finish up one long task and immediately have to get to work making up for my lack of work towards my exams.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire I guess..." I muttered to myself, quickly running through a couple smaller things until Mari got back.

As she arrived with our coffee, I took a sip of mine and we got to work reviewing, chatting and enjoying each other's company as we studied. Besides Language Arts and English to a lesser extent, I'm not exactly skilled at any of the classes we share, but together with Mari we managed to cover for the areas the other was struggling with in those subjects.

—---------------------------------

As the dusk fell and turned to night, I stretched out and said "I should probably be getting home, I should be heading to bed soon if I want any hope of catching up on missing sleep"

As I got up and as I started to pack up, Mari gave me a hug and said "You know, if you'd like you could stay the night here with me. I'd love to be able to cuddle up with you as we head to bed."

I smiled at her, and after deciding that there wasn't anything really that important at home that I needed to take care of, I gave her a smile and said "Yeah alright. I'd be happy to stay over."

Mari headed to go change into some pajamas for the night while I took care of cleaning up our study session's mess. It's not like I expected this and brought sleepwear after all, but I am pretty good at getting comfortable in whatever I'm lying in, so I'll be fine.

When Mari stepped out, I felt my breath taken away slightly. She looks really cute like this, and I don't think I've ever seen her in her sleepwear before so it's a highly appreciated sight.

Mari headed into the bed after turning the lights, and after a moment I joined her. I don't think she had really been planning on sharing the bed with anyone since it was a bit small, but I'm not going to complain about being closer to Mari.

As we laid together, I couldn't help but feel a warmth and happiness in my chest as I looked at the woman I love, resting against me, but still, I can't help but wonder that no matter how much I love her, and how that has never changed besides growing stronger, if something this great can truly last forever.

----------------------------------------

A/n: After finishing proofreding and dealing with a long day IRL I'm not exactly on my A game with chapter titles, and so I may change this title in the morning when I'm not so dang tired